Ender's Game (going to try being vague to avoid much spoilers)
Watching Ender's Game. So far he's still in Bonzo's Salamander Army.
Very unimpressed by how they handled the first introduction to the Battle Room. Sgt. Dap practically gives away one of the interesting insights which Ender's supposed to have later. I guess this is in keeping with the movie's decision to heavily foreshadow one of his others, moving out into the launch shuttle. Boo.
The timeline of Ender's behavior in Bonzo's battles seemed overly compressed. That's the sort of thing a movie had to do, and I understand it. But I'd like to have seen E do a *little* more on the obeying side, as he finds his under-bad-command balance.
The battle room intro didn't need to be that way, though. Maybe they're never intending to incorporate the end-of-game trick. I forget at what point it came up in the book. Well, that wouldn't be a huge loss.
And Bean is WAY too tall. Bonzo is shorter than Bean even!
====
And here's the battle...
All the tricks pop up on the same scene: OK.
But given that, what the heck is going on with that protective formation? Why are they flinging those extra people off? The movie's version doesn't require four helmets, so what's the benefit?
====
Andersen and Graff have a showdown over how to treat Ender. It is at this point that I have doubts about the choice to cast Andersen as a woman. I think it takes away from the drama, the questions that should be raised about Graff's ultimate morality.
=====
Advanced base seems to be planet rather than an asteroid. Less cool, but no real difference.
====
Jonathon and I simultaneously:
Ansible is simultaneous no matter where you are!!
=====
Graduation battle:
Protect like we protected Alai. That's more helpful than the enemy's gate is fucking down.
Let gravity do the work... That's when the gate is down quote would have been effective.
Shouldn't Ender be suspicious that he sees Mazer in the viewing room?
====
Deleted scenes:
Oh, they really should have kept in that scene where Andersen and Graff work out the importance of continuing to frame the battle as a game.
At least they kept in "you don't really see them as children".
Hmmm, and I would have liked to include the first part of Graff and Valentine's conversation. Absolutely leave out all the what's-going-on-in-the-rehab-center pan around. But keeping his pep talk to her has interesting repercussions during her talk with her brother. ... And I really like his quiet "that's ok". End the scene there.
Jonathon complains that on-planet L&D are completely missing, but I agree that it was the right call to leave that plot line out of the movie's necessarily compressed/focused narrative.
And on reflection, it makes fine sense not to spend time on how Ender develops insight as a tactician and commander. I mean things that he figured out about how to play the battle rooms... and about respect for the rules. And maybe even about the question of who's the real enemy. That wasn't so much what the movie was about (even if it was a big and well done part of the book).
The theme of the movie, I think, it's about taking moral responsibility. What actions are required and which not to be done.
But if you're going to not do that, then you CAN'T rely on the "gate" catch phrase to mean anything. Bean shouldn't have said it at the final battle.
And come on, once Bean went ahead and said it, what difference did Ender's dramatic wide armed gesture do? Nothing! Didn't effectively change the perspective for movie viewers. And all other larger meaning had been stripped. Lame, attempting to be moment-of-awesome.
======
Over all though,i think a pretty well made movie and more fun to watch than not.
Very unimpressed by how they handled the first introduction to the Battle Room. Sgt. Dap practically gives away one of the interesting insights which Ender's supposed to have later. I guess this is in keeping with the movie's decision to heavily foreshadow one of his others, moving out into the launch shuttle. Boo.
The timeline of Ender's behavior in Bonzo's battles seemed overly compressed. That's the sort of thing a movie had to do, and I understand it. But I'd like to have seen E do a *little* more on the obeying side, as he finds his under-bad-command balance.
The battle room intro didn't need to be that way, though. Maybe they're never intending to incorporate the end-of-game trick. I forget at what point it came up in the book. Well, that wouldn't be a huge loss.
And Bean is WAY too tall. Bonzo is shorter than Bean even!
====
And here's the battle...
All the tricks pop up on the same scene: OK.
But given that, what the heck is going on with that protective formation? Why are they flinging those extra people off? The movie's version doesn't require four helmets, so what's the benefit?
====
Andersen and Graff have a showdown over how to treat Ender. It is at this point that I have doubts about the choice to cast Andersen as a woman. I think it takes away from the drama, the questions that should be raised about Graff's ultimate morality.
=====
Advanced base seems to be planet rather than an asteroid. Less cool, but no real difference.
====
Jonathon and I simultaneously:
Ansible is simultaneous no matter where you are!!
=====
Graduation battle:
Protect like we protected Alai. That's more helpful than the enemy's gate is fucking down.
Let gravity do the work... That's when the gate is down quote would have been effective.
Shouldn't Ender be suspicious that he sees Mazer in the viewing room?
====
Deleted scenes:
Oh, they really should have kept in that scene where Andersen and Graff work out the importance of continuing to frame the battle as a game.
At least they kept in "you don't really see them as children".
Hmmm, and I would have liked to include the first part of Graff and Valentine's conversation. Absolutely leave out all the what's-going-on-in-the-rehab-center pan around. But keeping his pep talk to her has interesting repercussions during her talk with her brother. ... And I really like his quiet "that's ok". End the scene there.
Jonathon complains that on-planet L&D are completely missing, but I agree that it was the right call to leave that plot line out of the movie's necessarily compressed/focused narrative.
And on reflection, it makes fine sense not to spend time on how Ender develops insight as a tactician and commander. I mean things that he figured out about how to play the battle rooms... and about respect for the rules. And maybe even about the question of who's the real enemy. That wasn't so much what the movie was about (even if it was a big and well done part of the book).
The theme of the movie, I think, it's about taking moral responsibility. What actions are required and which not to be done.
But if you're going to not do that, then you CAN'T rely on the "gate" catch phrase to mean anything. Bean shouldn't have said it at the final battle.
And come on, once Bean went ahead and said it, what difference did Ender's dramatic wide armed gesture do? Nothing! Didn't effectively change the perspective for movie viewers. And all other larger meaning had been stripped. Lame, attempting to be moment-of-awesome.
======
Over all though,i think a pretty well made movie and more fun to watch than not.